Apologies for not posting

Well, its been awhile since I posted. I had been waiting for the professional pictures from the Mud Run, but the Pendleton site hasn't posted the photos from our day yet. I have some here that Scott took, and I think there a bunch from after the race that were on somebody's digital camera.

The Run was a lot of fun. I know...waking up at 6 am, so you can drive to Oceanside, and then sit in single lane traffic for over a hour after getting on base, so you can park and then take a bus to the race area...all so you can run 6.1 miles in the mud might not sound like fun...but somehow it was a blast. We will definitely be going back next year.

There was a group of us running together and because of the slower than normal pace that I took, I wasn't too affected by the side cramp. My knee however, is a completely different story. I'm not sure when or where the original injury took place (I seem to vaguely remember twisting it during a snowboarding trip either last year or further in the past) but its certainly something that has bothered me from time to time for awhile now...but nothing like this. I literally limped through the last mile or so, sometimes skipping along to try to keep as much weight off it as possible. After getting home I iced it down for hours. The pain persisted for a few days.

Suffice to say, I have not run on its since. Even light exertion makes it flare up, as I experienced at JBC on Sunday. I did get on the Precor elliptical trainer at the gym yesterday and put in a good 30 minutes with no pain at all...so that's good. I plan to get my stamina back up that way while taking all the stress off the knee. Obviously, I should get it looked at, but I need suggestions as to who to see. A Sports medicine doctor? Honestly, Ive never been to anyone for anything like this, so I don't know where to start. Input is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Will this stop me from this month's goal? No way. Unless someone tells me that I am running the risk of serious permanent damage, I will gut it out and get it done. I will just get a brace or band or whatever I need to hold everything in place.

On the poker front...well things were going along smoothly and I hit a losing streak yesterday and the day before. I had been very swingy, playing a lot of Omaha 8/b online. People play WAYYYY different online and its very spastic. There is almost no reason to ever limp/raise in Omaha preflop unless you are just a gambler and want to pump the pot. The fact is there is almost no way to really get a good assessment of where your hand is until after you see a flop. Even AAK2 double suited can get counterfeited in an instant. Oh well, it was a juicy game both days and I believe I was +EV. An unfortunate thing happened yesterday in the game where I was obviously a victim of collusion. A player actually typed into the chat box telling another player that he had a "low", after the other player hesitated to call a bet on the river. Sure enough the opponent made a super thin call with only two small pairs and took the high portion of the pot, while Mr. "Low" took the bottom end. I reported it Full Tilt as it was an obvious case of collusion where the cheater accidentally typed the information he was providing to his buddy into the poker window instead of his instant messenger. I lost $400 in that game. Who knows how many times I got squeezed out...lame. I'll be staying away.

I played some live cash last night as well. It was an 8/16 holdem game and I was running poorly. Many missed draws in a wide open game half full of fish, and then one guy that flopped set after set and hit every two pair imaginable to stack up more than half the chips in play (he eventually left with 7 racks). I eventually cut my losses after hours of grinding down and went and sat in a NLHE game. I promtly tripled up there and then added a little more to get me positive for the session. But then I flopped top pair a few times against short stacks and had to double them up. This is where game selection becomes soooo important. Two action players left the game to play at a higher stakes table and the action dried up...along with the money at the table. This is not a good scenario as you too often will have to open up your starting requirements and then get trapped/priced in when a short stack moves on you. I even texted to my buddy that the game had dried up, but yet, I continued to play in it. MISTAKE. I stopped the bleeding and got up a $175 loser for the session. At first glance it looks not so bad seeing as how I was in for over $400 at my low point. But a second examination shows that i was actually positive $150 and allowed myself to sit in a shitty game with lots of "gotcha" problems that I know enough to avoid. That's bad. There is always another poker game another day. Dont stay in a bad one just becaause its late and you're looking to make a score before bed. Bad, bad, bad.

So here is the long and short of it. I was up $2375 for the month prior to this losing streak. This knocks me down to $1655. I owed myself money (quick explanation when your poker bankroll gets to $0 you have to replenish with your own cash) and I had to pay myself back. That leaves me quite short...and honestly without enough cushion to play much live action. So...its back to the tournaments. I can still do this! It's just one or two final tables away!